International Garden Photographer of the Year 2010

The International Garden Photographer of the Year 2010 is the world's premier competition and exhibition specialising in garden, plant, flower and botanical photography, providing a treasure trove of ideas and inspiration for both aspiring and expert photographers. It is run in asssociation with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and categories include plant portraits, garden views, wildlife in the garden, people in the garden, the edible garden, trees and four seasons

International Garden Photographer of the Year, 2010, Overall winner and First place for Garden view category: Marianne Majerus, Layered landscape: a moment captured (Private Garden, Luxembourg). What the judges said:
'This is a magical moment in the garden, perfectly seen and brilliantly captured. From one corner of the frame a fan of sunlight slants down through the early-morning mist. The spiky flowerheads make another diagonal leading off into the opposite corner. The sharp foliage in the foreground makes a contrast with the hazy trees behind. Altogether a delicious picture.'

Wildlife in the Garden category, winner: Gillian Hunt, Camouflage. 'The subject is of a brightly coloured chaffinch camouflaged amongst equally bright newly opening sycamore buds and the subtle colour of the lichen . . . the colours of the chaffinch blend with the buds and the lichen and the bird becomes a bloom amongst blooms. .The light, the colour, the luck - a bird landing amongst the buds I was photographing whose colour reflected that of the buds and the lichen and the whole thing had a soft focus circular frame of branches drawing the eye to the subject. How could I not take it..I only had seconds … the bird landed on the tree where I was photographing sycamore buds. I remember thinking WOW how lucky am I. I had to quickly re-frame focus and click - I managed three shots before he had gone again. Right place, right time, quick thinking.'

Wildlife in the Garden category, 2nd place: Magdalena Wasiczek, Mimikra (Trzebinia, malopolska region, Poland). This pear was lying on the top of pears heap in a dish. They were just washed and ready to eat on the windowsill. I have found this view very tasty and I decided to take a picture. I was playing with composition and found that one of the leaves is not a real leaf - but a butterfly! It was peacock butterfly. Beautiful and brightly coloured, but the underside of wings is rather unimpressive, as it proved to be an excellent camouflage.'

People in the Garden category, winner: Victor Korchenko, Tai Chi in Beihai Park (Beijing, China). Every morning Beihai Park is filled in with dozens of Chinese people performing various forms of traditional exercise and playing traditional music. That brings life in the thousand years old imperial garden and is probably its main feature

People in the Garden category, 2nd place: Gösta Lindbom, Autumn in my garden. 'Suddenly I saw him sitting there, tired and relaxed, exactly in the same position as always in my garden. A feeling appeared and I made the photo.'

People in the Garden category, 3rd place: Lynn Keddie, He who plants a garden plants happiness (Alf and Christine's garden in Stroud, Gloucestershire). Alf had just harvested several varieties of different coloured carrots so that we could photograph them. Christine, his wife came out to join us and they both walked back up the garden with their hands full of brightly coloured vegetables. They were obviously sharing a special moment, which is reflected in the cheeky grin on Christine's face. Gardens are about people. This photograph just makes me smile

Plant Portraits category, winner: Mandy Disher, The Beacon - A patio plant in my garden. 'My love of nature, especially flowers has inspired me to strive to capture and share my view of it's beauty. The Cosmos Sonata is such an elegant and beautiful flower, I wanted to try to capture its wonderful ethereal qualities; its pure white flowing petals reaching up from the slender stem reminded me of a bright light in the dark'

Plant Portraits category, 2nd place: Brian Haslam, Magnolia campbellii var (Cornwall). 'The tree was a stunning example full of perfect flowers, conveniently situated at eye level. I held the front petal down with one hand to show the central pistil and stamens'

Plant Portraits category, 3rd place: Sergey Karepanov, Tulipa. Universe of flowers (The Netherlands). 'Last spring I visited a Dutch polder of tulips. Only the skyline borders enormous quantity of flowers. I am a gardener myself and grow tulips, but I have never seen such a lot of flowers. It is fantastic'

Trees category, 1st place: Colin Roberts, Tree-lined landscape (southern England). 'Trees in a stretch of rolling English landscape, photographed at first light in spring. The trees follow the hedge-lines between the fields, decorating the landscape with their rounded shapes. The misty atmosphere diminishes the tones of the most distant trees, helping to convey a feeling of depth in the scene'

Trees category, 2nd place: Tom Wundrak, Autumn Melody (Franconia, Germany). 'It was the poetical and abstract quality of this vista up into the autumal sky which inspired me to take this photograph. The array of leaves resemble a score of notes encoding the melody of autumn. Finding the right layout for all the elements - the closeup foliage and the distant silhouettes of the trees - was the main task here as I wanted to achieve an asymmetrical well-balanced composition from a particular perspective

Edible Garden category, 1st place: Mark Bolton, Alderman Moore's allotments, Bristol, England. Autumn morning down on the allotments. 'This photograph was taken on an autumn morning, complete with mists and a lot of 'mellow fruitfulness' . The location was on my allotment site in the centre of Bristol and I was probably walking towards my own site thinking about what I was about to pick!'

Edible Garden category, 2nd place: Carol Sharp, Home Studio (England). "I grew these purple podded peas myself from seeds from Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library. This is part of a series I am shooting for the library which may be used for a calendar. As they are heirlooms I wanted to evoke the mood of an old masters still life painting and show how attractive the pea was in different stages'

Edible Garden category, 3rd place: Carlo Silva, Melone modigliani (Lombardy, Italy). This is a photograph of a melon. The shot is inspired by Jeanne Hébuterne in a painting of Amedeo Modigliani. It's an interpretation of a natural product, an example of one of many original and particular gifts of the Earth

Portofolio category, 2nd place: Julia Claxton, Plant portraits (Fly Agaric). 'The initial impetus for this work was the richness and diversity of form in the fruiting bodies of funghi and the sense of the hidden revealed in their sudden appearance. I also wanted to portray a sense of the myths and mystery that traditionally surround them'

Young garden photographer, 1st place: Matthew Tauzer (age 15), Snowfall in Eden. 'This blanket of snow unexpectedly covered the Portland, Oregon Japanese Gardens on a December morning. This is one of my favourite trees and it was spectacular to see it in such a beautiful environment'